long live

verb

"long-live" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“long live” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used in the subjunctive mood: may he, she, they, or it live for a long time; may it prosper.

Corpus desk

Index EN-long-live · long live · English

long live · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for long live
PropertyValue
Headwordlong live
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “long live” in English

long livesits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

long live is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Used in the subjunctive mood: may he, she, they, or it live for a long time; may it prosper.".

long live doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is long live, spelled L-O-N-G- -L-I-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Used in the subjunctive mood: may he, she, they, or it live for a long time; may it prosper.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how long live appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Long live the King!

Antonyms

down withdeath to

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "long live"?
"long live" is spelled L-O-N-G- -L-I-V-E.
What does "long live" mean?
As a verb, "long live" means: Used in the subjunctive mood: may he, she, they, or it live for a long time; may it prosper.
What language does "long live" come from?
"long live" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list